Valentine's Bak Kwa Bun

A sweet milk bun recipe designed to make use of the bak kwa or honey pork jerky which came in abundance during the Lunar New Year, and shaped into a Heart designed apt for the Valentine's Day theme 💗
Honestly, the shaping process was more tedious as compared to normal bread buns, but it's worth the effort after seeing the tray of heart shaped buns out of the oven 😍

Yield: 8 buns

Raw dough weight: 438g

Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 190℃, bake at middle rack, at 170℃ for 20 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for 5 minutes.

Ingredients

Bread dough

170g bread flour

30g plain flour plus/plain flour

32g raw sugar

2g instant dry yeast

40g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

110g milk, cold

15g beaten egg

20g water, cold to be added depending on dough condition

2g low-sodium salt

20g unsalted butter, softened

Filling

50g bak kwa/pork jerky, cut into small bits

3g green scallion

Coating

some water

50g roasted sesame seeds

Toppings

Some beaten egg

30g bak kwa/pork jerky, cut into heart shape

* 40g natural yeast can be replaced by 20g each of bread flour and water.

Directions

1. Mix and knead all the ingredients listed under the bread dough title to window pane stage.

For more detailed description of the steps please refer to another of my recipe Palm sugar coconut bun

Cover with a lid, and let the dough proof for about 70 minutes or till double in volume.

2. While waiting for the dough to proof, cut the bak kwa into 8 heart shapes. And cut the remaining bak kwa, and green scallion, into small bits. Set aside.

3. After the 70-minutes proofing, invert out the dough onto a floured worktop.

Deflate the dough, and divide the dough into 8 portions.

Shape into balls, cover with cloth, and let them rest for 15 minutes.

4. Take a dough ball and roll flat into an oval shape.

Flip over, and sprinkle about 5g of bak kwa bits, and some green scallions over the dough.

Roll up from the longer edge into a cigar shape.

Pinch the edge to seal.

Brush the shaped dough with some water, and roll over a tray filled with roasted sesame seeds, to coat almost the entire roll.

Use a dough cutter to cut through the middle of the roll into halves, leaving about 2cm long end intact.

Fold in the two open ends to meet at the joining point of the uncut end, to create a heart shape dough.

5. Place the shaped dough over a non-stick baking tray with good spacing in between. Keep the tray of shaped dough in a cold oven to undergo second proofing for about 30 minutes.

End of 30-minute proofing, remove the tray of shaped dough from the oven. Start to preheat oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes.

While waiting, brush a thin coat of egg wash at the center of the dough, avoiding the sesame seeds coated edge.

Push a heat-shaped bak kwa to the centre of the dough.

6. Bake at middle rack, reduce the oven temperature to 170℃ after closing the oven door. Bake for 20 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for another 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool over a wire rack.

Enjoy the buns warm 😋