Cookie Crust Wet Butter Bun (Yudane)

My first attempt in baking the popular Hong Kong pineapple buns. As the buns were not any close to resembling the pineapple pattern, so I prefer to name it by the features of the bread. 

I added a small chunk of salted butter to the center of the bread, so the melted butter would coat and caramelized at the base for added aroma😋

Some recipes I have read gave cookie crusts which were lumpy or rocky, while the recipe I followed give a crispy and fine crumb crust. The crust would only become crispy after cooling down. So, let the warm buns cool down for about 10 to 15 minutes before enjoying 😋

Yield: 10 buns

Raw dough weight: 640 g

Baking temperature:  Preheat oven to 200℃, middle rack, bake for about 12 minutes, reduce to 180℃ for 5 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for 3 minutes.

Cookie Crust

Ingredients

60g unsalted butter, softened

18g egg yolk

15g whipping cream

110g top flour/cake flour

15g custard powder/corn starch

1g baking powder

1g baking soda

90g icing sugar

Directions

1. Cream softened unsalted butter till light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and whipping cream till well combined.

2. Fold in the flour mixture and icing sugar till all the ingredients come together into a dough.

3. Transfer the dough to a sandwich size plastic bag or wrap in cling wrap. Keep in an air-tight container and refrigerate for 1 hour before use.

I prepare the cookie dough one day in advance and kept overnight in the fridge. Thaw the cookie dough for about 90 minutes in the container.

Bread Dough

Ingredients

230g bread flour

50g superfine wholegrain flour/plain flour

40g raw sugar

2g instant dry yeast

1/8 tsp vanillin powder, optional

50g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

30g yudane dough^

20g multigrain soy pulp, optional#

135g low sugar soya milk, cold 

20g egg white

15~20g cold water, to be added depending on dough condition

4g low sodium salt

20g unsalted butter, softened

* 50g natural yeast can be replaced by 25g each of bread flour and water + 1/8 tsp instant dry yeast. Let the mixture stands for about 1 hour or more till double in volume, before use. You can also keep the mixture in the fridge overnight and thaw it for 1 hour before use.

^ 39g yudane dough is prepared by combining 20g of bread flour with 20g of very hot or boiling water into a sticky dough. Wrap the yudane dough in cling wrap, and cool down before use. Use a silicone spatula to scrape out the sticky yudane dough from the cling wrap.

# multigrain soy pulp or okara is the residue after brewing the multigrain soy milk. The ingredients involved organic soy bean, black beans, red kidney beans, split green peas, pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnut, mung beans, and pandan leaf.

Filling

25g salted butter, cold, cut into 10 portions

Egg White Glaze

remaining egg white

1 tsp whipping cream

Directions

1. Knead the dough following your preference method. 

For my method, you can refer to my recipe Yudane Milk Bread. After kneading the dough to window pane stage, 

shape the dough into a ball, and keep in a big mixing bowl. Spray some water over, cover with a lid, and let it proof for about 60 minutes, or till double in size.

End of 60-minute proofing 👇

2. Invert the dough onto a floured work top, deflate the dough, and divide into 10 equal portions.

Shape the dough into 10 balls, cover with an inverted bowl, and let them rest for 15 minutes. 

While the dough is resting, cut the cold salted butter and keep them in the fridge till needed in next step.

3. Take a dough ball, flatten it using the palm. Place a cold cut salted butter in the center of the flat dough.

Wrap up the dough and shape into a ball.

4. Space out the shaped dough over a non-stick baking pan. Proof them in a cold oven for about 15 minutes.

As the assembling of cookie dough to the shaped dough will take up quite some time, so I have to start early. As a general guide, the shaped dough with the cookie dough have to be ready in about 40 minutes after the second proofing started.

While the shaped dough is undergoing 2nd proofing, divide the cookie dough into 10 portions, and shape into 10 balls. Get the egg-white glaze ready too.

After 15-minute of 2nd proofing👇

5. Brush a coat of egg-white glaze over all the shaped dough.

At the same time, start to preheat the oven to 200℃ for about 10 minutes.

Flatten a cookie dough between two sheets of plastic films.

With the help of the plastic film, transfer the flattened cookie dough over to the top of shaped dough.

Sprinkle a little low-sodium salt over the cookie dough.

Try not to remove the cookie dough from the plastic film by hand, as the cookie dough will break easily and pose difficulty in assembling!

6. Before baking, brush another coat of egg-white glaze over the cookie dough.

Saw the broken cookie dough at the left-hand corner.
That's was my first piece when I tried to remove the cookie dough
from the plastic film.

7. Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven at 200℃, for about 12 minutes, reduce to 180℃ for 5 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for 3 minutes, or till the crusts turn golden brown.

8. Remove the buns from the oven, and cool over a wire rack.

9. Let the hot buns cool down for about 10 to 15 minutes, or till the crust becomes crispy. The crust would be soft while it was still hot.

Lemon Tea Whipping Cream Bread (SSL)

A delicious loaf of bread which carried a hint of lemon scent, saw some fine tea dusts and fine lemon bits scattered in the springy crumb ❊☆✭✬✴

The flour-dusted leaf stenciling was my best loved decoration to the crust so far 😍

tea dust scattered in the entire bread

A fine yellow bit of chopped lemon rind

Yield: one loaf of bread

Pan size: 21x13x10 cm Jamie Oliver 1.5L bread pan

Raw dough weight: 644g

Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 190℃, lower rack, bake at 180℃ for 15 minutes, reduce to 170℃ for 15 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for 5 minutes.

Sweet Stiff Levain (SSL)

Ingredients

35g cool boiled water

15g raw sugar

25g natural yeast, 100% hydration*

75g unbleached bread flour

* 25g natural yeast can be replaced by 12g bread flour + 13g water + 1/8 tsp instant dry yeast

sweet stiff levain (👈click to access the preparation method)

Lemon Tea Mixture

Ingredients

2 teabags of black or red tea

100g warm water

2 thin slices lemon

1. Steep 2 black teabags and lemon slices in 100g of warm water for about 1 hour.

2. Remove the teabags and lemon slices from the tea without squeezing the teabags and lemon slices.

3. Collect 80g of lemon tea from above.

4. Cut out the lemon rind from the above lemon slices, and chopped into fine bits. Top up with additional freshly chopped lemon rind to make up 3g in total.

5. Squeeze dry one tea bag of tea dusts, about 5g. Set aside.

Lemon-Tea Dough

Ingredient

A

200g bread flour

30g superfine wholegrain flour/plain flour

40g raw sugar

5g milk powder

1g instant dry yeast

3g chopped lemon rind from above

5g squeeze-dried tea dust from above

B

150g sweet stiff levain 

20g multigrain soy pulp *, optional

20g beaten egg

80g lemon-tea from above, room temperature

50g whipping cream, cold

30g water, cold (to be added depending on dough condition)

 

C

3g low-sodium fine salt

D

20g unsalted butter, softened

* multigrain soy pulp can be replaced by about 10g milk. Multigrain soy pulp was made up of organic soy beans, almonds, red kidney beans, black beans, split green peas, walnut, pumpkin seeds, mung beans and pandan leaf.

Directions

Knead the dough following your preferred method till reaching window pane.

1. Mix  Ingredient A in a mixing bowl.

2. Mix in Ingredient B.

multigrain soy pulp

sweet stiff levain

lemon tea

Mix in one direction till it becomes a lump. Cover with a lid and let the dough rest for 15 minutes

3. Knead the dough using an electric hand mixer fitted with a pair of dough hooks till the dough is smoother. Knead in Ingredient C.

4. Knead in Ingredient D, 

till the dough is smoother and a bit glossy.

5. Perform about 300 sets of "slapping and folding" till the dough is elastic (the dough can stretch to about 30 cm without breaking).

And the dough can be stretched into a thin membrane, known as window pane.

6. Shape into a ball, spray some water over, cover with a lid, and let it proof for about 60 minutes, or till double in volume.

60-minute proofing later 👇

7. Turn out the dough onto a floured work top. Deflate the dough, divide into 3 portions, and shape into 3 balls. Cover with an inverted mixing bowl, and rest for 15 minutes.

8. Roll out the dough to about 1 cm thick.

Flip over the dough, and fold in the two wings, overlapping each other.

Roll out to achieve an even thickness. Finally, roll up like a swiss roll.

9. Lower the shaped dough into the bread pan coated with a thin layer of homemade non-stick spread. Spray some water over, cover with a tea cloth, and let it proof for about 60 minutes, or till almost reaching the rim of the pan.

60-minute proofing later 👇

5. Start to preheat oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes.

While waiting, cut some parchment paper stencils, and sprinkle with some bread flour. You can omit the paper stencils and just sprinkle the bread flour.

Bake at 180℃ for 15 minutes, reduce to 170℃ for 15 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for 3 minutes

10. Remove the hot bread from the pan after leaving the oven, and rest on a wire rack to cool down.

11. After the bread has completely cooled down, cut and enjoy 🍞 😋