Tiger Bak Kwa Coconut Bun 肉干椰丝面包 (Yudane)

Baked 10 tiger strips pattern buns filled with bak kwa and sweet coconut filling to usher the lunar year of Tiger. Not a perfectly drawn tiger skin pattern, but looking from far still have some degree of resemblance, hehe 😉

Bak kwa or BBQ pork or chicken jerky is a popular goody during Chinese New Year period. It is quite common to use it to bake buns. However, I find using pure bak kwa is too salty. So I added the bak kwa bits to some lightly sweetened grated coconut to give a milder yet delicious filling to the buns. The BBQ aroma of the bak kwa helped to give the grated coconut a faint BBQ aroma 😋

Video of the 🐯🥥buns

Yield: 10 small buns

Raw dough weight: 515g

Baking temperature:  Preheat oven to 190℃, middle rack, bake at 180℃ for 8 minutes, reduce to 170℃ for 10 minutes, turn off heating and bake for 2 to 3 minutes.

Baked using Teka HLB840 oven with Temperature Surround feature which allows breads to be baked at a shorter duration.

Bak Kwa Coconut Filling

Below quantity made 370g which can be made into two batches of 10 buns each

Ingredients

10g organic coconut oil/mild flavour vegetable oil

25g raw sugar

20g fine sugar

15g hot water

1/4 tsp low sodium salt

250g grated coconut

3g glutinous rice flour

25g water for mixing with glutinous rice flour

90g bak kwa/honey BBQ pork or chicken jerky

vacuum packed mini bak kwa

Directions

1. Heat coconut oil, raw sugar, fine sugar and 15g of hot water in a pot till it bubbles. Stir in the low-sodium salt.

2. Mix in the grated coconut.

3. When the grated coconut has well mixed with the bubbled syrup, push the grated coconut aside, and pour in the glutinous rice flour water to the middle of the pot.

When the glutinous rice flour paste starts to thicken, stir the grated coconut to mix well.

The coconut should have a moist texture.

4. Cut the Bak Kwa or honey pork/chicken jerky into bit size. Stir it to the grated coconut in the pot.

You will collect about 370g of bak kwa grated coconut after cooking.

Divide the coconut filling into two portions. Wait for the coconut filling to cool down before storing in the fridge. I prefer to prepare the coconut filling one day in advance, and keep them in two portions for two different baking sessions.

Each cup holds about 185g of coconut filling.

Milk Bun Dough

Ingredients

200g bread flour

10g spelt flour/superfine wholegrain flour

10g pumpkin powder/top/cake flour

30g raw sugar

1g instant dry yeast

40g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

29g yudane dough^

130g low-fat milk, cold +

10g whipping cream +

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

3g low sodium salt

20g unsalted butter, softened

Toppings

some egg white

some whipping cream

some bamboo charcoal powder

* 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.

^ 30g yudane dough is prepared by combining 16g 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.

+ 110g low fat milk & 10g whipping cream can be replaced by 120g fresh milk.

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, 

shape the dough into a ball,

and keep in a plastic bag pre-coated with a thin coat of oil. Squeeze out most of the air, tie a loose knot, and keep in a second plastic bag.

Place the bag of dough in a big mixing bowl, cover with a lid, and store the dough in the fridge overnight to undergo cold fermentation. I let the dough keep in the fridge for about 14 to 16 hours.

2. In the next day, invert the dough with the plastic bag, and thaw the dough for about 1 hour in room temperature. Thaw the bak kwa coconut filling at the same time if you kept it in the fridge.

3. Turn the dough onto a floured worktop, deflate the dough, and divide into 10 portions. Roll each dough into ball. Cover with a cloth and let them rest for about 15 minutes.

4. Roll flat a dough and add about 18g of the bak kwa coconut filling to it. Fold up the dough, pinch to seal the joining edges into a rugby shape. Roll the shaped dough into cigar shape with the seam side facing down.

5. Arrange the shaped dough over a non-stick baking pan. Spray some mist over, and let the shaped dough proof in a cold oven for about 30 minutes.

6. While waiting, mix some egg white with whipping cream, and another egg white portion with some bamboo charcoal powder. Set aside.

7. Remove the proofed dough from the oven. And start to preheat the oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes. 

First, brush some egg white-whipping cream over the entire face of the shaped dough.

Next, use a spoon to apply streaks of egg white-bamboo charcoal to resemble the tiger skin strips.

8. Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven. Lower the temperature to 180℃ after closing the oven door. Bake at 180℃ for about 8 minutes, lower the temperature to 170℃ and bake for 10 minutes. Turn off the heating and bake for about 2 to 3 minutes.

You may have to observe the colour of the buns to determine the duration of each baking temperature setting. The goal is to achieve a golden hue to the crust.

9. Remove the tray of buns from the oven, and let them cool down a while before serving. Enjoy the yummy tiger strips buns 🐯🐯