Butter Sugar Cheese Pumpkin Bun

I left a small segment of Japanese Kabocha pumpkin which was too little to cook a dish. So I steamed and mashed it, and added it to my butter-sugar bun dough. To make those almost like "kosong" buns more interesting, two candy-size cheddar cheese were being added to each bun. The embedded cheese created a melted cheese tunnel at the end of the baking 😍

The buns were not only appealing to the eyes, but also delicious, too 😋

Yield: 8 buns
Raw dough weight: 434g
Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 200℃, bake at 200℃ for 5 minutes, 170℃ for 13 minutes.


Steamed Pumpkin
47g peeled Japanese Kabocha pumpkin chunks

Steam for about 15 to 20 minutes, or till the pumpkin softens.
Drain away the excess liquid, and mash the pumpkin while it is still warm.
Allow the mashed pumpkin to cool down before use. I collected 44g of the mashed pumpkin.

Sponge
10g bread flour
2g instant dry yeast
10g water
20g natural yeast *

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

Mix all the ingredients and let it stands for about 60 to 150 minutes. You can shorten the duration to about 60 minutes. As I was busy with other chores, so let the sponge stood longer 😅

Bread Dough

Ingredients
150g bread flour
50g Prima plain flour plus/plain flour
20g raw cane sugar
2g low-sodium fine salt

42g sponge from above
44g mashed pumpkin from above
10g beaten egg
10g condensed milk
60g cold milk
25 cold water

10g cold water, added depending on dough condition

20g unsalted butter, add after gluten formed

Filling
16 pcs Anchor Candy Cheese

Toppings
Some beaten egg as egg wash
10g lightly salted butter, softened*
About 1 tbsp Demerara/coarse sugar

* You can increase the quantity of the butter if you prefer a richer flavour.

Directions

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.

2.  Add all the wet ingredients, except the 10g of cold water and unsalted butter, into the mixing bowl. Add the 10g of water slowly to adjust the dough moisture.
When all the ingredients come together into a lump, cover with a lid and keep in fridge's vegetable drawer for 20 minutes. This allows autolysis to take place.

3. Knead the dough at low speed till it forms into a smoother dough. Add the softened butter and continue to knead till reaching window pane stage.

Give the dough about 50 sets of "Slap and Fold" till it forms into a smooth dough.

4. Transfer the kneaded dough to a mixing bowl coated with a thin layer of oil. Spray some water over, cover and let the dough proof for about 70 minutes, or till double in size.

End of 70-minute proofing

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

6. Roll out a dough ball into a long dough of about 0.8 cm thick. Place two candy cheese at one end of the dough, and roll up, shaping the dough simultaneously.

Pinch to seal at the end.

Let the seam face down and shape into a long pillow.

Arrange the shaped dough over a non-stick baking tray. Spray some water, and let them proof in cold oven for about 35 minutes. As the final decoration will take some time to process, so I shorten the 2nd proofing time.

End of second proofing

7. Preheat the oven to 200℃. While waiting, apply a coat of egg wash over the shaped dough.

Draw a slit along the middle of the dough,about 2 to 3mm deep.

Squeeze a short length of softened butter into the slit.

Sprinkle some Demerara sugar over the top of the dough.

Bake at middle rack of an oven preheated to 200℃ for 5 minutes, lower temperature to 170℃ and bake for 13 minutes, or till the top has become golden.

8. Transfer the bread out of oven, and let the bread cool down slightly before consuming.

Best eaten warm while the cheese is still soft 😋