Scallion Bun 葱花面包

A popular Taiwanese bread baked with an aromatic scallion and egg crust. The over-flown egg topping would be browned to form a thin egg skin at the base of the buns. The recipe was quite simple to prepare. And I adjusted the recipe to bake 8 buns using just one egg, instead of the usual 2 eggs - one for the dough, and one for the crust 😉

Video showing the buns just out of oven 😀

Yield: 8 buns
Raw dough weight: 365g
Baking temperature: Middle rack of a preheated oven at 200℃ for 5 minutes, reduce to 180℃ for 10 to 12 minutes.

Water Roux
3g bread flour
2g glutinous rice flour
25g hot water

Mix and stir the mixture over low heat till it gelatinize into a smooth and translucent paste. Let the water roux cool down to room temperature before use.

Dough Ingredients
105g bread flour
80g Prima plain flour plus
5g milk powder
2g instant dry yeast
30g raw cane sugar
2g low-sodium salt
20g water roux from above
15g beaten egg
20g natural yeast, 100% hydration *
50+15g cold water
20g rice bran oil

* natural yeast can be replace by 10g each of bread flour and water.

Scallion-Egg Topping Ingredients
2g rice flour
4g hot water
~ combine into paste, optional

40~45g beaten egg (the remaining beaten egg)
28~30g scallion, cut into 0.8cm length
1/8 tsp low-sodium salt
dash of Knorr HaoChi or chicken stock
dash of pepper
4g rice bran oil

Directions
1. Knead all the Dough ingredients into a smooth dough. Place in a big mixing bowl coated thinly with oil, cover and let the dough proof for about 60 minutes, or till it double in size.

End of first proofing

2. Invert the dough onto a floured worktop. Deflate the dough and divide it into 8 portions. Shape them into 8 balls, cover and let them rest for 15 minutes.

3. Take a dough ball and roll flat to about 0.5cm thick.

Roll up from the shorter edge into a log, and pinch to seal up all the ends.

Arrange the shape dough onto a non-stick baking tray.

Slit a deep 1cm groove along the central line of the shaped dough, keeping the two ends intact.

Spray some water and let the shaped dough proof in a cold oven for about 30~40 minutes.

4. Remove the tray from the oven and start to preheat the oven to 200℃.
Brush a thin coat of egg wash over the shaped dough.

Just about to start baking, combine all the scallion-egg ingredients together.

Scoop the scallion-egg topping over all the shaped dough.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200℃ for 5 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180℃ for 10~12 minutes, or till the buns turn golden.

5. Transfer the hot buns to a cooling rack to cool down.

Enjoy it warm 😋

Video showing the finished buns

Recipe adapted from Carol葱花面包 with great appreciation 😍