Milk Butter Paste Cocoa Bun 奶酥可可面包

I am not sure what is the proper name for the 台湾奶酥 in English.  So, I just translate it into Taiwanese milk butter paste 😉. It was made up of mainly unsalted butter, icing sugar, and milk powder. And taste like loose form of butter cookie. I added two cubes of Kiri Lemon Tart cheese for a hint of lemon flavour.

Yield: 10 small buns

Pan size: 

Raw dough weight: 426g

1st proofing: overnight, about 14~16 hours

2nd proofing: 40 minutes

Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes.  Reduce the temperature to 180℃, and bake for about 13 minutes, turn off the oven and let the breads bake for another 2 minutes, or till the crust is golden brown.

Milk Butter Paste 奶酥 (190g)

Ingredients

60g unsalted butter, softened

10g lemon tart cheese cube, for lemon flavour, optional

40g icing sugar

20g beaten egg

60g milk powder

5g potato starch

Directions

1. Cream softened butter and cheese cubes till pale, before mix in the icing sugar into a smooth paste.

2. Blend in the beaten egg.

3. Mix milk powder with potato starch in a small bowl using a whisk. Fold the milk powder mixture to the butter mixture. Blend into a smooth paste.

4. Transfer the milk butter paste to a small plastic bag, and spread out into a single flat layer.

5. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes to partially harden it. Or, keep in the fridge overnight, and thaw for about 10 to 15 minutes before use.

6. Keep about 30g in a piping bag for decorating the buns before bakingdc  c . Divide the remaining 160g into 10 portions, and shape in balls. Keep in the refrigerator till needed.

Cocoa Milk Bread Dough, (426g)

Ingredients

160g bread flour

23g spelt flour

5g cocoa power

3g milk powder

25g raw sugar

2g instant dry yeast

40g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

20g yudane dough^

105g low-fat milk, cold 

5g whipping cream

25g  cold water, to be added depending on dough condition

3g low sodium salt

10g unsalted butter, softened

* 40g natural yeast can be replaced by 20g of bread flour and 20g of water + 1/8 tsp instant dry yeast. Let the mixture stand for about 1 hour or more till it doubles in volume, before use. You can also keep the mixture in the fridge overnight and thaw it for 1 hour before use.

^ 20g yudane dough is prepared by combining 10g of bread flour with 10g of very hot or boiling water into a sticky dough. Wrap the yudane dough in cling wrap, cool down and refrigerate before use. Use a silicone spatula to scrape out the sticky yudane dough from the cling wrap.

 

Egg Milk Wash

3 tsp egg white

1/4 tsp whipping cream

1/4 tsp golden syrup

a little rice bran oil

- mix and set aside

Directions:

1. Knead the dough following your preferred method. 

For my method, you can refer to my recipe Yudane Milk Bread. 

2. After kneading the dough to window pane, shape the dough into a ball, and keep in a plastic bag coated with a little cooking oil. Keep in a second plastic bag before keeping the dough in the fridge overnight.

3. In the next day, remove the outer plastic bag, invert the dough, and let the dough thaw at room temperature for about 60 minutes.

4. Flatten the dough to remove most of the trapped air.

Divide the dough into 10 portions, about 42 to 43g each. Shape into balls and rest for 15 minutes.

5. Take out the milk butter paste balls from the fridge just before shaping.

6. Flatten a cocoa dough, and wrap up a cold milk butter paste ball in the middle.

Shape into a ball.

Place the shaped dough on a baking tray. Spray some mist over, and keep in a cold oven to proof for about 40 minutes.

40 minutes later 👇

7. Start to preheat the oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes.  

Brush the shaped dough with Egg Milk Wash.

Pipe 30g of milk butter paste over the shaped dough.

8. Reduce the temperature to 180℃, and bake for about 13 minutes, turn off the oven and let the buns bake for another 2 minutes, or till the crust is golden brown.

9. Let the buns cool down for a while before serving 😋😋

Halloween Steamed Cake

A nice aromatic steamed cake in pandan, vanilla and cocoa flavours, with a subtle tea scent coming from the black tea dust at the bottom layer.

Since Halloween is just round the corner, so just gave the cake a little spooky design using the cocoa batter 👻🦇👻🦇

video 📹

Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature except cold eggs

Using 55~56g eggs

{A}

2 egg whites, cold

Pinch of low sodium salt

20g fine sugar

15g raw sugar/fine sugar

2 egg yolks, cold

{B}

60g top/cake flour

1g milk powder, optional

1/4 tsp pandan powder, optional 

{C}

50g low-fat milk

10g golden syrup/condensed milk

10g rice bran oil/mild flavour veg oil

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

{D}

2g black tea dust, from 1 teabag

{E}

3g cocoa powder, mix with 

3g hot water, into a smooth paste

Directions

1. Start to boil about 130g of water in a small pot in medium-low heat. Cover the pot with a glass lid with a steam vent.

2. Mix {C} ingredients in a small glass. Set aside.

3. In a clean and dry mixing bowl, beat egg white with salt, fine sugar, and raw sugar till reaching firm peak. Mix in yolks and beat till reaching ribbon stage as {A}.

4. Mix in 1/3 of {B} to {A} using an electric hand mixer.

5. Pour and mix in 1/2 of {C} mixture. Continue to mix in the remaining {B} and {C} in alternating sequence. End the mixing with {B}. Use a silicone spatula to do a final mixing into a smooth batter.

6. Transfer about 1/2 of the batter into a bowl , and mix in 2g of black tea dust. 

Pour the black tea batter into a 135x45mm round pan lined with parchment paper.  Lightly rap the pan to level the batter.

7.  Pour the remaining 1/2 of the batter, keeping about 2 tbsp of batter for the cocoa batter, over the black tea batter. Rap the pan to level the batter.

8. Mix about 2 tbsp of remaining batter with cocoa paste under {E}. Transfer the cocoa batter to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 10 nozzle, or a 5mm round tip nozzle.

9. Pipe the cocoa batter over the batter according to your desired design.

10. Lower the cake pan into the pot of boiling water, and stand on a steamer rack. Steam at medium-low heat for 5 minutes; lower to low heat and continue to steam for 10~12 minutes. Turn off the heating, without opening the lid, let the cake simmer for 5 minutes to gradually “cool down”. 

Open the lid carefully. Drop the cake with pan over a cloth thrice. Let the cake cool down for 5 minutes before lifting out of the cake pan. 

Cut the cake after cooling down. 

Black Sesame Pork Floss Steamed Cake

A sweet and savoury steamed cake with a greed for good flavours.

🔆 Top layer - added freshly roasted and ground black sesame seeds 

🔆 Middle layer - pork floss + green scallions + coriander stems

🔆 Bottom layer - flavoured by vanilla and pandan

Video 📹

Ingredients

All ingredients in room temperature except cold eggs

Using 50~52g eggs

{A}

2 egg whites, cold

Pinch of low sodium salt

20g fine sugar

15g raw sugar/fine sugar

2 egg yolks, cold

{B}

58g top/cake flour

1/4 tsp pandan powder, optional 

{C}

50g low-fat milk

10g golden syrup/condensed milk

10g rice bran oil/mild flavour veg oil

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

{D}

15g crispy pork floss

1g green scallions, finely chopped 

1g coriander stem, finely chopped 

{E}

7g freshly roasted & ground black sesame seeds 

Direction

1. start to boil about 130g of water in a small pot in medium-low heat. Cover the pot with a glass lid with a steam vent.

2.  mix {C} ingredients in a small glass. Set aside.

3. in a clean and dry mixing bowl, beat egg white with salt, fine sugar, and raw sugar till reaching firm peak. Mix in yolks and beat till reaching ribbon stage as {A}.

4. mix in 1/3 of {B} to {A} using an electric hand mixer.

5. pour and mix in 1/2 of {C} mixture. Continue to mix in the remaining {B} and {C} in alternating sequence. End the mixing with {B}. Use a silicone spatula to do a final mixing into a smooth batter.

6. pour 1/2 of the batter into one 135x45mm round pan lined with parchment paper.  Lightly rap the pan to level the  batter.

7. scatter {D} mixture over the top of the batter in the pan.

8. mix {E} to the remaining 1/2 of the batter, and pour over {D}. 

Rap the pan to level the batter.

9. lower the cake pan into the pot of boiling water, and stand on a steamer rack. Steam at medium-low heat for 5 minutes; lower to low heat and continue to steam for 8 minutes. Turn off the heating, without opening the lid, let the cake simmer for 5 minutes to gradually “cool down”. 

10. open the lid carefully. Drop the cake with pan over a cloth thrice. Let the cake cool down for 5 minutes before lifting out of the cake pan. 

Cut the cake after cooling down.