Thai Milk Tea Bun with Ermine Cream

Soft and a little chewy Thai milk tea bun filled with smooth Thai milk tea ermine cream for a better taste :)

Bread maker: Mayer MMBM12
Raw dough weight: 530g
Baked 9 buns

Ingredients

85g + 20g Thai tea
3g squeezed dry Thai tea leaves
15g beaten egg
20g fine sugar
3g fine salt
30g cold unsalted butter

200g Prima bread flour
50g Japanese bread flour
10g milk powder

100g Herman Starter *
1g instant dry yeast


* Details on the Herman Starter please refer to end of this recipe

Thai Milk Tea Ermine Cream for piping, optional

Directions

1. I used Herman Starter on the 7th day of cultivation.

2. Steep one Thai teabag, about 5g, in 130g of hot water for about 15~20 minutes.

Collect 85g and 20g of Thai tea in separate containers. Squeeze dry the tea leaves, and collect about 3g of it.

3. Pour all the bread dough ingredients, except the 20g of Thai tea, following the sequence listed into the bread pan of a bread maker. Select "Ferment Dough" and start the program. The program, which includes mixing, kneading and 1st fermentation, will take about 1 hour 30 minutes to complete. But I stop the program at the 45th minute.

After the ingredients have combined into a lump, slowly add in the 20g of Thai tea depending on the dough condition.

Stop the program when the countdown timer reads 0:45 and after the kneading blade rotated.

Transfer the dough into a slightly oiled plastic bag. Loosely tie a knot and double protect with another outer plastic bag.

Cover the keep in the fridge for overnight fermentation, about 14 hours.

Thaw the dough in room temperature for about 1 hour before working on it.

Invert the dough while thawing

1 hour later.

4. Divide the dough into 9 portions, and shape into balls.

5. Spray some water and keep in a cold oven to proof for about 100 minutes.

100 minutes later.

6. Dust a thin coat of flour over,

and snip some patterns using a pair of scissors. This step is optional.

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for about 20 minutes at middle rack of the oven.

End of baking

Transfer the buns out of the oven and cool down over a wire rack.

This step is optional
8. After the buns have completely cooled down, make a slit in the middle. Pipe Thai milk tea ermine cream into the slit. Enjoy :)

Herman Starter preparation

For details in keeping Herman starter please click this link.

For this round of Herman Starter cultivation, I increase the flour amount from 9g to 10g for easier calculation.

Average room temperature: 28~30°C

Day 1

Transferred Herman Starter: 30g

Plain flour: 10g

Fine sugar: 17g

Whole milk: 13g

Total: 70g

Day 2

Only stirring

Day 3

Only stirring

Day 4

1st feeding:

Plain flour: 10g

Fine sugar: 17g

Whole milk: 33g

Total: ~130g

Day 5

Only stirring

Day 6

2nd feeding

Plain flour: 10g

Fine sugar: 17g

Whole milk: 33g

Total: ~190g

Day 7

Only stirring

The Herman Starter was more active on the 7th day than on the 8th day.  Hence, I prepared the dough on that day (about 6 hours after stirring) and keep in fridge for overnight fermentation till the next morning.
I left the remaining Herman Starter in room temperature till the next day.

About 6 hours after stirring, the Herman Starter has risen to more than double the original volume.

Stirred again to check the strength of the HS.

HS doubled in volume after 1.5 hours. It was ready to be used.

Day 8

Took 30g of the remaining Herman Starter to mix with 10g of plain flour, 17g of fine sugar and 13g whole milk to start another round of cultivation. I kept the remaining 50g of Herman Starter in the fridge for use in cooking.
I added a little Herman Starter to my soya sauce chicken during marinating 😋