Milk Tea Bun (Yudane)

I have been searching for a type sweet black tea or teh-O served in some local coffee shops which have a special sweet fragrance. I finally found that special tea in 2-in-1 teabags. Used it to bake 10 small sweet milk tea buns for our tuna sandwich lunch 😋

The buns were purposely baked to a light crust to make the tea dusts more visible, and to preserve the mild tea fragrance. As I was having stuffy nose, so I could not really smell the tea flavour. Perhaps I'll find out in my next baking 😉

Yield: 10 small buns

Raw dough weight: 542g

1st proofing: overnight in fridge 

Thaw for 80 minutes before shaping 

2nd proofing: 60 minutes 

Baking temperature:  Preheat oven to 190℃, middle rack, bake at 180℃ for 10 minutes, lower to 160℃ for 8 minutes, finally turn off oven and continue to bake for 2 minutes, or till crust turns lightly golden brown.

Ingredients

220g bread flour

20g superfine wholegrain flour 

3g wet tea dust, squeezed dry

30g raw sugar

1g instant dry yeast

50g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration

30g yudane dough^

120g sweet black tea, cold 

20g whipping cream

10g beaten egg 

24g cold water, to be added depending on dough condition

3g low sodium salt

20g unsalted butter

Glaze

Milk + whipping cream + egg

* 50g natural yeast can be replaced by 25g each of bread flour and 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.

^ 30g yudane dough is prepared by combining 16g of bread flour with 16g 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, 

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

3. In the next day, remove the outer plastic bag, and let the dough thaw at room temperature for about 90 to 100 minutes. 

4. Divide the dough into 10 portions, shape into balls and let them rest for about 15 minutes.

5. Roll flat a dough, and roll up the shaped dough starting from the longer end into cigar shape with the seam side facing down.

6. 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 60 minutes.

60 minutes later 👇

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

Brush some glaze over the entire face of the shaped dough.

8. Bake in the middle rack of a preheated oven. Lower the temperature to 180℃ after closing the oven door. Bake at 180℃ for about 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 160℃ and bake for 8 minutes. Turn off the heat and bake for about 2 to 3 minutes.

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