Oolong Tea Milk Bun

Please do not expect a nice tea flavour from the oolong tea milk bun 😉😬 I added the oolong tea to the bread just for the nice golden colour, and any health benefit if the tea could still give after baking in hot oven 😉😊 The bread still carried the nice aroma of a baked bread, with a little chewy texture like a bagel.

This recipe made a nice 8 long sandwich buns for a family of four 😺😸😺😸 who enjoyed tuna sandwiches without mayonnaise 😍 We preferred to use canned tuna flakes in sunflower oil added with chopped onion, green scallion bit, raw sugar, green lime juice, pepper powder for a leaner and healthier filling🥪

Combine the remaining beaten egg with another egg, and pan-friend into two rectangular omelettes. Cut the omelettes into strips and add to the base of the tuna filling 🥪

Yield: 8 long sandwich buns

Raw dough weight: 495g

Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 190℃ for 10 minutes, bake at lower rack, at 180℃ for 10 minutes, lower to 160℃ for 10 minutes, off oven and bake for about 3 minutes.

Ingredients

200g bread flour

20g superfine wholegrain flour/plain flour

35g raw sugar

2g instant dry yeast

8g full cream milk powder

wet tea dust from one black teabag

40g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

29g yudane dough^

125g oolong tea, cold to be added depending on dough condition

10g beaten egg

2g low sodium salt

20g unsalted butter, softened

some beaten egg as egg wash before baking

As I didn't have oolong teabag, so I used the wet tea dust from a black tea bag.

* 40g natural yeast can be replaced by 20g 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.

^ 29g yudane dough is prepared by combining 15g of bread flour with 15g 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.

Directions

1. Knead the dough following your preferred method. 

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

Squeezed dry the wet tea dust before adding to the flour mixture

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 70 minutes, or till double in size.

70-minute proofing later👇

2. Turn the dough onto a floured worktop, and deflate the dough. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions, and shape into balls.

Cover and let the dough balls rest for about 15 minutes.

3. Roll out a dough ball into a flat oval dough of about 1 cm thick.

Flip the dough over, and fold in the two long edges to meet at the middle.

Do a second fold and pinch to seal the two meeting edges.

Flip over the shaped dough so the seam side is facing down. Lightly press the dough to flatten it slightly.

Arrange the shaped dough over a non-stick baking tray with good spacings into between. Spray some water over, and place them in a closed cold oven to undergo second proofing for about 40 minutes.

40-minute proofing later👇

4. Remove the tray of shaped dough from the oven, and start to preheat the oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes.

While waiting, brush some beaten egg over the shaped dough about 5 minutes before baking.

5. Bake at lower rack, at 180℃ for 10 minutes, lower to 160℃ for 10 minutes, switch off oven and bake for about 3 minutes, or till lightly golden.

6. Remove the tray of buns from the oven, and let them cool down before making them into sandwiches 🥪🥪🥪🥪😋