Caterpillar Bun 毛毛虫面包

A delicious milk bun partially covered by butter cookie stripes, and filled with mild flavoured Monterey Jack cheese.

The bun resembled a caterpillar that's how it was named. It was a popular item in the local bakeries many years ago.  However, it seemed to have disappeared from the bakery shelves recently. Answering to my daughter's request, I baked half a dozen to try and the result was good. From now onward, I need not worry about not being able to get the buns from bakery, because I can replicate them now in my kitchen 😋

Yield: 6 x 16cm long buns

Butter Cookie Topping

Ingredients

35g salted butter

30g icing sugar

35g beaten egg

25g top flour

10g rice/top flour

Directions

1. Whip softened butter with icing sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Gradually mix in the beaten egg.

3. Blend in the sifted top flour.

4. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 0.5 cm round nozzle, or Wilton 10 nozzle.

5. Store in the fridge till needed.

Bread dough

Raw dough weight: 305g

Ingredients

140g bread flour 高筋面粉

15g superfine wholegrain flour 低筋面粉

10g milk powder 奶粉

25g fine sugar 细糖

1/4 tsp salt 盐

15g beaten egg 蛋液

1/2 tsp instant dry yeast 即发酵母粉

80g water 水

To be added later

20g unsalted butter 无盐奶油

Filling

65~70g Monterey Jack Cheese

Directions

1. Combine all the dough ingredients, except the butter, in a mixing bowl. Stir in one direction till all the ingredients formed into a lump.

Cover with a lid and let the dough stands for about 15 minutes.

 

2. Knead the dough till smooth and a bit glossy.

3. Spread out the dough and apply softened butter onto it. Knead to incorporate butter into the dough.

Continue to knead till you can stretch out the dough to reach window pane stage. This takes about 5 to 10 minutes. Shape into a ball.

Keep the dough in a covered bowl and let it proofs for about 1 hour, or till the size doubles.

End of first proofing

4. Flatten the dough and divide it into 6 portions, about 50g each

Shape the doughs into 6 balls by pulling down the sides and seal at the base. Lightly coat the individual dough ball with flour and place in a covered plate. Let them rest for about 15 minutes.

5. After the 15 minutes rest, roll out the dough ball into a flat oval dough.

If you intend to make a pair of pop out eyes for the caterpillar, cut and keep a small corner of the dough for later use. This step is optional. 

6. Cut 6 long strips of monterey jack cheese.

Place one cheese strips at one of the longer edge, and roll up the dough.

Seal the end by pinching the edge.

Roll to shape.

7. Arrange the doughs on a non-stick baking pan. Spray a few pumps of water over the dough. Transfer to a closed oven to proof for 30 minutes.

End of 2nd proofing. Remove the dough from the oven. At the same time, take out the cookie dough from the fridge to thaw for about 10 minutes.

8. Shape the collected dough from Step (5) into 6 pairs of mini eye balls.

Wet the surface with a little water before attaching the eye balls to the main doughs.

9. Preheat the oven to 180°Celsius.

10. Pipe the cookie dough over the body of the main dough in a zigzag manner.

11. Bake at the middle rack of the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes.

Further reduce the oven temperature to 170°Celsius and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes, or till the top is slightly brown.

End of baking.

12. Transfer to a wire rack to cool down. 

13. You can paint the eyes with either a food colour pan, or use the dark soy sauce.

Serve it warm to enjoy the crispiness of the cookie.

For the remaining cookie dough, I baked it into some thin and crispy butter cookies at 160°C for about 15 minutes.