Valentine's Bak Kwa Bun

A sweet milk bun recipe designed to make use of the bak kwa or honey pork jerky which came in abundance during the Lunar New Year, and shaped into a Heart designed apt for the Valentine's Day theme 💗
Honestly, the shaping process was more tedious as compared to normal bread buns, but it's worth the effort after seeing the tray of heart shaped buns out of the oven 😍

Yield: 8 buns

Raw dough weight: 438g

Baking temperature: Preheat oven to 190℃, bake at middle rack, at 170℃ for 20 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for 5 minutes.

Ingredients

Bread dough

170g bread flour

30g plain flour plus/plain flour

32g raw sugar

2g instant dry yeast

40g natural yeast/sourdough, 100% hydration*

110g milk, cold

15g beaten egg

20g water, cold to be added depending on dough condition

2g low-sodium salt

20g unsalted butter, softened

Filling

50g bak kwa/pork jerky, cut into small bits

3g green scallion

Coating

some water

50g roasted sesame seeds

Toppings

Some beaten egg

30g bak kwa/pork jerky, cut into heart shape

* 40g natural yeast can be replaced by 20g each of bread flour and water.

Directions

1. Mix and knead all the ingredients listed under the bread dough title to window pane stage.

For more detailed description of the steps please refer to another of my recipe Palm sugar coconut bun

Cover with a lid, and let the dough proof for about 70 minutes or till double in volume.

2. While waiting for the dough to proof, cut the bak kwa into 8 heart shapes. And cut the remaining bak kwa, and green scallion, into small bits. Set aside.

3. After the 70-minutes proofing, invert out the dough onto a floured worktop.

Deflate the dough, and divide the dough into 8 portions.

Shape into balls, cover with cloth, and let them rest for 15 minutes.

4. Take a dough ball and roll flat into an oval shape.

Flip over, and sprinkle about 5g of bak kwa bits, and some green scallions over the dough.

Roll up from the longer edge into a cigar shape.

Pinch the edge to seal.

Brush the shaped dough with some water, and roll over a tray filled with roasted sesame seeds, to coat almost the entire roll.

Use a dough cutter to cut through the middle of the roll into halves, leaving about 2cm long end intact.

Fold in the two open ends to meet at the joining point of the uncut end, to create a heart shape dough.

5. Place the shaped dough over a non-stick baking tray with good spacing in between. Keep the tray of shaped dough in a cold oven to undergo second proofing for about 30 minutes.

End of 30-minute proofing, remove the tray of shaped dough from the oven. Start to preheat oven to 190℃ for about 10 minutes.

While waiting, brush a thin coat of egg wash at the center of the dough, avoiding the sesame seeds coated edge.

Push a heat-shaped bak kwa to the centre of the dough.

6. Bake at middle rack, reduce the oven temperature to 170℃ after closing the oven door. Bake for 20 minutes, turn off oven and continue to bake for another 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool over a wire rack.

Enjoy the buns warm 😋

Moo Patch Pineapple Jam Ball 牛纹黄梨球

 

I have been shaping some pineapple jam cookie balls following the prevailing zodiac sign of that year since the starting of Year of Pig. Honestly, the shaping has been getting more complicated and difficult each year. Therefore, for this coming Ox or Moo Moo Year, I decided to forgo the face feature, and concentrate on the patch pattern using bamboo charcoal powder. As these cookies are supposed to carry some auspicious colours, so I added a red heart and a green leaf to each ball. 

Happy Moooooo~ Year 2021🐄🐮

Update 14.2.2021 Valentine's Day

Since this year Valentine's Day coincided with the Lunar New Year, so I used the same recipe, and shaped some pineapple jam cookie balls into carrying a little romantic theme for the Valentine's Day. There were two designs, namely the crimped rose design, and the plain ball topped with heart shape and leaf shape coloured dough 💗

Yield: about 40 pineapple jam balls

Baking temperature: Bake in a preheated oven at 200℃ for about 5 minutes, lower the temperature to 170℃ and bake for 7 minutes, turn off the oven heating and continue to bake for about 5 minutes. At middle rack of the oven.

Butter Cookie Dough
210g unsalted butter, softened
40g icing sugar
1/2 tsp fine salt
1 yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

295g plain flour plus/plain flour
10g milk powder
25g corn starch

Filling
300g pineapple jam

I prefer to prepare the dough and roll the pineapple jam balls in advance and shape them on another day. Therefore, the method shared here were for two shaping sessions.

Directions
1. Cream softened butter with icing sugar and salt till light and fluffy.

2. Blend in the yolk and vanilla essence before adding the sieved flours and milk powder.

3. You will get about 600g of cookie dough after combining all the ingredients together. 

Take about 20g of the plain cookie dough to combine with about 1/4 tsp of bamboo charcoal powder into black dough.

Divide the dough into two portions and wrap in cling wrap.

Divide the remaining plain dough into two portions and wrap in sandwich size plastic bags.

Keep in airtight container and refrigerate till needed.

4. Divide the pineapple paste into 7g each and roll them into balls. Separate the pineapple jam balls with a plastic sheet between each layers. I prefer to prepare these balls in advance, keep in airtight container, and refrigerate them.

5. Thaw the plain cookie dough, black cookie dough and about 20 pineapple jam balls, about 1 hour before shaping.

6. Take the 10g of black cookie dough, and break it into small irregular crumbs in a small bowl.

Without removing the plastic bag, roll the plain dough into a flat dough. 

Cut open the plastic bag, and set aside about 10g of plain dough for the red and green colour dough later. Sprinkle the black cookie dough bits over the plain cookie dough.

Cover back the plastic sheet, and roll flat the black cookie dough into the plain cookie dough. This will create the patch pattern over the plain dough.

Divide the dough into about 20 portions.

Each portion of plain cookie dough should weigh about 14g. The 20th piece of the dough will be used to make up for any dough weighs below 14g.

7. Place a pineapple jam ball into the middle of the dough. Wrap up the dough and shape into a ball.

Place the shaped dough over baking tray lined with parchment paper.

If you roll the dough ball gently, you'll get patch pattern. However, If you roll the dough with force, you'll get marble pattern. Have fun playing with the rolling work😆

8. Divide the remaining plain dough set aside from Step 6, into two portions. Mix them with red and green food dye into one red and one green cookie dough.

Cut out red heart cookie dough,

and green leaf cookie dough, to decorate the shaped dough ball in Step 7.

9. Bake in a preheated oven at 200℃ for about 5 minutes, lower the temperature to 170℃ and bake for 7 minutes, turn off the oven heating and continue to bake for about 5 minutes. At middle rack of the oven.

10. Remove from the oven and cool down before enjoying 😋

Keep the unconsumed cookies in an airtight container 🍪

marble pattern

patch pattern

Use the remaining cookie dough to bake two unique colourful pineapple jam cookie balls 😍