My Mind Patch: Rice Cooker Palm Sugar Coconut Bun

As the hazy weather persists, I continue to bake my breads using my rice cooker which does not generate as much heat as the oven does. Using the rice cooker to bake reduces the chances of adding a few degrees to my kitchen temperature especially when all the windows are shut.

The crust of the rice cooker baked bread was very soft. Owing to my excessive maneuver to the bread to take photos, the crust was "imprinted" with lots of my finger markings. In fact, the crust was not so unsightly originally ^^

The palm sugar/gula melaka flavoured coconut filling is simple, yet moist and delicious :)

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

Appliances:

Whirlpool BM1000 breadmaker 面包机

Philips Avance rice cooker 电饭锅

(10 rice cups volume)

Bread weight: 536g

Raw dough weight: 408 g

Coconut filling椰丝内馅 (190g)

Ingredients

150g grated coconut, room temperature

椰丝，室温

50g gula melaka/palm sugar 椰糖

1 tsp red sugar 红糖 (optional 可免)

1/8 tsp salt 盐

30g water 水

1 pandan leaf (optional) 香兰叶

1/2 tsp glutinous rice flour 糯米粉

1 tbsp water to mix with glutinous rice flour 水，用来调糯米粉成糊

Direction

1. Dissolve palm sugar/gula melaka, red sugar and salt in 30g of water with pandan leaf under medium heat. Let the ingredients boil for a while in order for the fragrance of the pandan leaf to infuse into the sauce. Stir regularly.

2. Stir in the grated coconut and mix well.

3. Finally pour in the glutinous rice water and blend well. Stirring regularly till the mixture becomes slightly drier and sticky.

4. Remove the pandan leaf and transfer the sweetened coconut to a metal bowl to cool down. Set aside.

Bread dough

Ingredients

120g cold whole milk 冷全脂牛奶
15g condensed milk 炼乳

30g raw sugar 黄砂糖

1/4 tsp salt 盐
15g beaten egg 蛋液
20g cold unsalted butter 冷无盐奶油

180g bread flour 高筋面粉
20g top flour 低筋面粉

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. Pour cold whole/fresh milk and condensed milk into the bread pan.

3. Add in beaten egg.

4. Add in sugar, salt and cold butter.

5. Pour in bread flour and top/cake flour.

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

7. Place the bread pan into the bread machine.

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

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

The dough is ready.

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

11. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions, about 51g each.

12. 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.

13. After the rest, roll out the dough.

Spoon about 18~20g of coconut filling to 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.

14. 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.

15. 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 35 minutes after the baking starts.

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