Pull-apart Red Bean Buns with Mickey Cocoa prints

Mum used to buy us red bean buns when we were young.  Easy to pack to school and filling enough, and above all that,  Dad loves red bean buns, those pull-apart ones. Hehe, back down memory lane.

 I have red bean paste, hence I did these, and of course packed some for Dad!  I wanted it to be cute buns, not plain ones.  Cocoa prints to liven up the buns came into my mind and I did just that. I had previously bought some mickey mouse cookie cutters during my first trip to Tokyo Disneyland some 7 years back and it was left untouched! Im not a cookie person so cookie cutters were like white elephants to me, but not anymore now. Who says cookie cutters are only meant for cutting cookies? :P

I thought the buns looked sweet more rather than cute haha!  Okay, anyway,  I like them still. Soft buns even on the next day.

The pull-apart buns were made using Alex Goh's gelatinized sweet bun recipe from the Magic Bread book.  I halved the whole recipe and yield about 480g dough, divided them into 9 pieces weighing between 53g to 54g each.

Gelatinized dough
100g bread flour
70ml boiling water

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Add hot boiling water and mix with wooden spoon to form a rough dough.
3. Cover bowl with cling film and leave dough to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour, and up to 48 hours.

Basic sweet bread dough
(Yield 1000g to 1100g dough)

300g bread flour
100g plain flour
80g sugar
20g milk powder
1 tbsp instant yeast
½ tsp salt
175ml cold water
1 cold egg (about 60g)
60g cold butter, cubed 
(Since I halved the recipe, the balance egg yolk was kept for the cocoa prints on the buns, I removed as much of the white)
270g red bean paste (divide into 9 balls weighing 30g each)

Cocoa Printings
Remaining half egg yolk
1.5 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp water
Required: Cookie cutters or clean brush to "draw" on the buns

1. Combine flour, sugar, milk powder, yeast and salt together in a mixing bowl.
2. Tear the gelatinized dough into pieces and add to the bowl along with the eggs
3. Using a stand electric mixer, mix on low speed, adding cold water gradually.
4. Mix until dough is well combined and leave the side of bowl.
5. Add in the cold butter cubes and mix on medium speed until dough is smooth.
6. Shape dough into a ball, leave to proof for 40 min or until doubled.
7. Punch down dough and divide into 53g / 54g ball, leave aside for 5 min for easier shaping.
8. Roll out each ball and fill with the red bean paste ball.  Seal up and place sealed sides facing down on greased baking tray, flatten it slightly with the palms and let proof for 45 min or till double in size.
9. Mix all the ingredients for cocoa prints till a smooth paste. Dip cookie cutter or clean brush into cocoa paste and gently place cutter on bun top to stamp out the outline / draw out desired picture on bun tops. No need to egg brush bun tops when doing prints.

10. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg for 15-20 min.  Remove to cool on rack.

How's these Mickey Cocoa print buns?  Keke~ ♡♡♡